As Death is Living
by Lady of Ithilien
Summary: A collection of drabbles and one-shots focusing on the relationship between Kikyou and Suikotsu, originally written for the LiveJournal community "IY no Kakera."
1. True Smile

I claimed the platonic relationship between Kikyou and Suikotsu at the LiveJournal community "Inuyasha no Kakera." In this community, authors claim a certain character, pairing, or relationship and write pieces for that claim based on 100 themes. This is where I'll be putting all of my drabbles and ficlets written for that community based on Kikyou and Suikotsu's relationship.

**Title:** True Smile  
**Theme:** Smiling Face  
**Genres:** Drama/Introspection  
**Rating: **G  
**Summary:** There are several areas where Kikyou and Suikotsu differ – one of them being that Suikotsu knows how to smile.

…

She watched as Suikotsu gently tended to one of his many wards, his eyes shining with a light clear enough to rival that coming from the shard in his neck. Sensing her gaze, he glanced up and gave her a bright smile. She returned it as best she could; Kikyou had never been good at smiles, and nowadays her attempts were feeble at most.

She and this young doctor had the common bond of lingering death, but it was a bond Kikyou considered superficial. They were quite different in all other aspects, and she found none more prominent than the way they smiled.

Kikyou's lips, made from a mockery of flesh, could twist themselves into a shadow of a smile – but it was never with mirth, never with contentment. Even before her death, smiling had been awkward, an alien expression for an unfamiliar feeling. She could vaguely recall Kaede grinning as though it was the most natural thing in the world. There had been times when she'd wanted to ask her sister what it felt like to smile and truly mean it.

Her attempts at those gestures of warmth increased when she met Inuyasha. But her efforts were hindered by the fact that she and the hanyou were far too similar; for Inuyasha, too, did not know how to smile. She suspected he might've known once, but had forgotten it long before, or else had buried it deep along with his innocence.

And now, a death and a lifetime later, Kikyou watched on as another being who had no business being alive smiled with all the affection he could give. As she tried to smile back, she wondered if there really was an answer to her question on how to give a genuine smile.

Suikotsu's soft chuckle reached her ears and delved into her fragment of a soul.

_Perhaps_, she thought, _I do not need a smile of my own. Perhaps it is enough to take comfort in the true smile of another._

…


	2. Washed Clean

**Title:** Washed Clean  
**Theme:** Rumor  
**Genre:** General  
**Rating: **G  
**Summary:** Kikyou and Suikotsu ruminate on purity, and whether a sinner's soul really can be washed clean.

_Note: Hakureizan means "white soul mountain."_

…

"_I've heard there's a place where even an old sinner like me can be saved."_

Kikyou could see it clearly now; Hakureizan loomed before her, tall, serene, and terrible. Was this mountain, shrouded in mist and mystery, really all that the old bandit had hoped it would be? Was there truly a place where sins could be washed away?

Soft footsteps approaching from behind gently broke through the quiet hour before sunrise. Kikyou did not need to turn to see who it was; the purity of that single shard resonated clearly enough for her.

"Good morning, Suikotsu-sama," she said without removing her gaze from the mountain.

Suikotsu returned the greeting, and she heard the smile in his voice before she saw it on his face. "I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

"Not at all," she replied, and the young doctor stepped up beside her. Together they stared up the ominous mountain.

"Such an incredible view," Suikotsu whispered reverently.

Kikyou glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "You don't find Hakureizan to be somewhat… eerie?"

He blinked at the question and was silent for a moment. But his smile soon returned as he responded, "Eerie? Well, I suppose at first. I walked right up to the foot of it once, and I couldn't even hear any birds there. But I got used to it after a while." He regarded the miko sympathetically. "Does the mountain unsettle you, Kikyou-sama?"

She frowned. "I simply wonder… it does not seem possible for something so pure to exist in this world." If Suikotsu noticed the searching look she was giving him, he made no indication.

"The white soul mountain," he murmured pensively. "You know, some say that Hakureizan can cleanse the impurities in one's soul."

Kikyou returned her gaze to the mountain. "I have heard that rumor as well."

Suikotsu laughed, a clear and merry sound. "I'm sure it is nothing more than an old wives' tale. Still, it is nice to think that such a place could exist. After all, everyone deserves a second chance, an opportunity to wash themselves clean of a horrible past. If I had a past that I was ashamed of, I know that I would wish for the same thing." He turned his smile towards her once again. "Don't you think so?"

The shard in his neck glowed almost white then, as if in defiance of Kikyou's doubt, of her existence, of her own impurity.

_"Even an old sinner like me…"_

She closed her eyes. "I wonder…"

…


End file.
